Saturday, September 25, 2010

Color Play

I love thinking about color, learning about color, and just plain playing around with color. Most books on color that I look at are the same old, same old--color wheel, analogous colors, complimentary colors........ This one is refreshingly different.

Most of the exercises in the book have you working with color intuitively. I liked this exercise of making a simple grid, starting by choosing the center square color, and then working out from there quickly with whatever color feels right. I did them with a small, cheap box of crayons, so I didn't get much range of color. They'd be a lot of fun with a nicer set of colored pencils or paint. These are suppose to be the elements fire, water, air, and earth.

She also works with designer color samples, which seemed like they would be great to have until I found out they cost $100. I decided to make my own by cutting up paint chips (yes, I just happened to have that many paint chips lying around--I never can resist a handful when I see them.)

I started ad libbing my own exercises and pulling palettes based on color schemes that surprise or inspire me.

Fallen plums--came from seeing plums on the ground in the alley. The plums were cracked open and sitting on dirt and stones.

Bakery Bar--the decor of a favorite haunt:

Enchiladas--self-explanatory:

I often fall back on favorite color combinations, so it's a fun way to stir things up a bit.

Dear Robin, yesterday I ordered the book. I am not so creative as you but I am trying to find my roots of creativity, perhaps you understand what I mean with that. Thank you for the tipp and thank you for your nice comment on my blog. Have good times! Anja